Life After Hogwarts
by Joeygirl1994
Summary: It's 4 1/2 years after graduation from Hogwarts and Victoire and Teddy are back in a new story filled with their sassy family and fewer but just as snarky friends. Join them as they experience life, friendships, love, relationships, jobs, internships, a few Quidditch games, a top secret auror mission or two, and the cherry on the top of the cake: a wedding in t-minus seven months.
1. Introduction

. . . Sorry . . . Introduction . . . Not the First Chapter . . .

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Hey everyone, as you can probably tell this first 'chapter' is an author's note and not the first chapter of the story . . .

**WAIT!**

I known what you're all thinking, and leave the mouse alone and just take a minute to read this, and then go on to the 'real' first chapter.

**First,** if you are in the group of people who had just finished reading the last bit of my story **Try and Tri Again**, you may all 'pass go and collect $200' (Meaning feel free to skip this next part and go on an enjoy the first chapter).

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For those of you who have not come from **Try and Tri Again**, we need to have a little chat.

This story, _**Life After Hogwarts**_, is a sequel to my first story** Try and Tri Again**. I do suggest that you read that story first because it will help you better understand this story.

**HOWEVER READING TRY AND TRI AGAIN FIRST ISN'T MANDATORY.**

I'm going to try to write this so that even people who haven't read my first story can read this one too without being confused. Now, that's going to take a lot of work on both our parts, but I'm going to try, so I'd appreciate your help too.

My **Try and Tri Again** story is incredibly long (295,105 words without author's notes) and I started it three years ago, so the quality of writing goes from okay in the beginning to much better by the end. So, for people who haven't read the first story, (While I would like you to read it because I think it's fun) you have a job to do when you do read this story:

**It's a simple job**, all you have to do is pay attention to my **Author's Note (A/N)** at the beginnings and ends of the chapters because I may recap things as a reminder (for everyone because the first story is very long) as to what happened in the first story that matters in the given chapter, or I might just refer you to specific chapter(s) to read to better understand the context of the story.

Again, I'm going to try to write it so that you can read this sequel without having to read the first story, so the first few chapters will be exhibition and introducing characters and such.

If you've actually taken all the time to read this **A/N** and want to read my story, well welcome to my wizarding world, and I hope you enjoy the ride ;)


	2. Invitations

**Author's Note:** Well everyone, here we are! Please enjoy and join me for the A/N at the end for the updating schedule.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own anything in the Harry Potter universe, it all belong to J.K. Rowling.

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**Invitations**

**Sunday, January 16th 2022:**

It was times like this that made Victoire wonder why she ever agreed to this wedding in the first place.

Sure, she was super excited at first when she was asked. She might have even shrieked out the answer 'yes' in the heat of the moment; which may have gotten her a pair of startled looks from Xavier and Kyle, but she was definitely regretting her decision at the moment. Planning a wedding seemed like a fun idea at first, but after switching the colour scheme three times, having a four-hour argument over the venue for both the ceremony and reception, and having to decide on the catering and music at least eight months in advance -when there was only actually six and a half months left before the wedding and neither catering nor music had yet to be decided upon.

Victoire Weasley was contemplating whether she actually wanted to walk through the front door of the ginormous 18th century mansion in front of her and began to dread the next task that went with planning the wedding: organizing the guest list.

The tall blonde twenty-one year old was in a bit of a daze as she stared at the shiny mahogany double doors in front of her while she seriously considered ditching their meeting and going back to her flat to catch up on some much needed sleep. Before she could get up the guts to turn around on the heel of her black winter boots and leave, the familiar popping sound of a person apparating filled the air behind her.

"Did someone transfigure the handle into a biting doorknob?" a cheeky voice asked from behind her.

She turned around to see Xavier Wood standing behind her, his tall and lanky build bundled up from the top of his toque-covered head to the bottom of his hiking boots in warm winter clothing.

Victoire rolled her ocean-blue eyes at her dirty-blonde haired friend and responded, "No. I'm just trying to calculate how much trouble I'd be in if I don't walk through that door."

"Sandra would most likely kill you for leaving all of the guest list to her," Xavier responded. He was referencing to Victoire's best mate Sandra Collins who, always being punctual, was probably already sitting down at a table in the mansion in front of them with a four-foot long parchment paper list of wedding guests and roughly 500 blank invitations and envelopes.

"I wouldn't be leaving it just to her," Victoire commented back as she picked at a bit red fuzz from her mittens off of her coat, "Kyle will help, and you're here to help too! You're the best man!"

Xavier rolled his hazel eyes at her, "You know you play a pretty important role in this wedding too, and if you don't show up today to help it's going to take us forever to get through with these invitations and guest list."

Victoire muttered something under her breath but all Xavier could catch were the words 'stupid', 'pureblood families', and 'lots of friends and associates'.

Xavier used his six-foot-three height advantage over her five-foot-eight frame to toss one of his aforementioned lanky arms around her shoulders, and brought her into his side, "C'mon Vic let's get going before Sandra freaks out over us being late. If you're lucky I might even hold open the door for you."

Victoire rolled her eyes, bumped his side with her hip, and sarcastically said, "You sure do know how to make a girl swoon."

Xavier had the chance to bump her back before they reached the polished doors where he removed his toque with a flourish –causing his short dirty-blonde hair to stand up on end– and opened one of the doors with a little bow. Victoire just rolled her eyes at him again before walking through the open doorway, giving Xavier a quiet thanks as she went. The minute the pair had stepped inside a very well dressed middle-aged woman came swooping down on them and ended up pulling the pair into a tight hug as she greeted them with her sophisticated pure-blooded drawl.

"Oh I'm so glad the two of you are here this is going to be _so_ much fun!"

Xavier had extricated himself out of the hug before Victoire could, so he grabbed her arm and gently pulled her out of the overly-excited woman's grasp.

"It's good to see you too Mrs. Line-" Xavier began to say to the woman before she interrupted him.

"Oh Xavier honey, you've been friends with Kyle since you eleven, and now you're both twenty-one, I think it would be perfectly fine for you to call be Guinevere," Mrs. Line told him.

Xavier shot Victoire a look that said 'maybe-you-should-take-over-now-she-might-listen-better-to-you'.

"Mrs. Line," Victoire started getting the woman's attention back to her, "What room are Sandra and Kyle in?"

"Oh they're in library, it has the biggest table that's not the dining room one . . . oh dear me the two of you are still in your coats and scarves! Here let me . . ." Mrs. Line good-naturedly babbled on as she pulled out her wand a said a quick spell that caused their hats, mittens, scarves, and coats to fly off of them and into the coat closet just off the side of the mansion's entrance hall.

Victoire placed her hand on Xavier's shoulder so she could kick her boots off, and then placed them gently on the mat just beside the coat closet. Once they had be divested of their winter garb, Mrs. Line led them up the first level of the marble staircase, down a hall, passed several doors, and to the open door of the mansion's large family library.

"The best man and maid of honour are here!" Mrs. Line announced excitedly as she led Victoire and Xavier through the doorway of the library.

Sandra Collins and Kyle Line, who had been sitting at the large mahogany table in the middle of the lavish library, stood up and came to the doorway to greet their friends.

"Hi Vic," Sandra greeted her best friend with a hug.

"Hi Sandra."

"Victoire!" Kyle Line yelled in a cheery voice. It was a scarily similar impression of the way his mother had sounded a few minutes ago when she greeted Victoire and Xavier at the mansion's front door.

Victoire turned to smile at Kyle, but it quickly turned into a frown when he grabbed her tightly into a hug and placed a sloppy kiss on her cheek.

"Down boy!" Victoire cried as she forcefully moved out of his arms and wiped his kiss off her cheek.

"Come on everyone and sit, we have a lot of stuff to do," Sandra directed her friends once everyone had greeted and hugged each other.

Sandra and Kyle settled down beside each other at the table they'd been sitting at when Victoire and Xavier had arrived in the library, while the new pair sat down across from them. The wide and normally dark expanse of the wooden table was covered with long sheets of off-white parchment paper, and with cream coloured wedding invitations and matching envelopes.

"Where do we start soon-to-be-Mrs.-Line?" Victoire asked her best mate in a teasing tone.

Sandra's face turned red and she embarrassedly ran a hand through her shoulder length dirty blonde curls, "Um, well I have two different lists here. The first is a list of everyone who originally received a 'Save the Date' card when we announced in August that the date for our wedding had been set. The second is a list of people we need to send wedding invitations to who were added to the list at the end and therefore didn't receive a 'Save the Date' card. Oh, and on the first list the names with red dots beside them are ones who already said that they wouldn't be able to make it when they first received their 'Save the Date' card . . ."

"Huh?" Xavier asked, planning weddings was a completely foreign concept to him.

"How about Xavier and I do the list of guests that isn't colour coded, and therefore giving us less of a chance to mess something up?" Kyle suggested as he languidly threw an arm around Sandra's shoulder.

Sandra sighed a little uneasily, "Sure, Vic and I can do the list of people who got 'Save the Dates'."

Sandra placed one piece of parchment paper in the middle of the table between Xavier and Kyle, and gave them a stack of invitations and envelops. Next, she placed the other list of guests in between her and Victoire, along with the rest of the invitations.

Victoire tilted her head as she glanced at the list in front of her, "Why do you have to send out both 'Save the Date' cards and wedding invitations? Why not only the invitations?"

Sandra sighed again as she grabbed an envelope and a quill to write the names of the guests, "According to both my mother and Kyle's mum it is proper wedding etiquette to do both. But only if the save the dates go out about a year before the wedding, and if the invitations at least six months before."

Victoire scratched the name of the guest she'd just addressed her first invitation to, off of the list in front of her and sighed, "Godric Gryffindor, weddings are confusing."

"You said it," Kyle piped in before licking the envelope he had in his hands closed.

His fiancée gave him a stern look, "You didn't _have_ to propose you know. And don't lick the envelope when you can use magic to close it."

"Yeah, like _not _proposing was actually a choice I had-" Kyle began.

"Aww," Victoire chirped.

"The minute we decided to move into a flat together my Mum was already dreaming of grandchildren. It was either propose right then and then wait a few years to pick the date for the wedding, or propose right then, elope, and then have both of our mothers try to kill us for not allowing them to be a part of the wedding," Kyle finished.

"Which choice did you pick?" Xavier asked sarcastically gesturing to the several hundred invitations and envelopes that they still had to complete before the day was over. If they didn't, then they would be behind on the 'Wedding Planning To Do List', which was a real five-foot long piece of parchment paper that Kyle and Sandra's mothers trade-off between each other and then cross matters off the list as they finish them.

"Well we wouldn't have so much crap to do for this wedding if somebody wasn't a pureblood prat with a bazillian family, friends, and business associates that for some reason need to be invited to the nuptials," Victoire commented while shooting an arched look in Kyle's direction. She was just joking with him. Somewhat.

Kyle knew she was just teasing but the very large guest list bugged him too. Sandra is a muggleborn, so even though she has a rather good-sized family, the amount of her family that was allowed to know about magic -and therefore about their wedding- added up to only about twenty people. She had friends to invite, but most of them were ones that she and Kyle shared since they had been in the same year and house for their years at Hogwarts (Gryffindor!) and they shared a lot of the same friends (Victoire and Xavier to name a few). Therefore, the majority of their expected 543 invites to the wedding were going out to distant relatives of Kyle's, he was pureblood on both his mother and his father sides; to high society friends of his parents; and to several business associates of Kyle and his father. The Line's construction business was one of the biggest and most profitable wizarding construction businesses in Europe.

After Hogwarts, Kyle spent two years in a wizarding business course. Since he had finished his course two years ago, he had worked in the main business office of his father's company, and had worked his way up from his entry-level position in the accounting and marketing section, to the manager of the entire accounting and finance department. He had held the position until a year and a half ago, when Sandra had finished her wizarding accounting course and got a job in the finance section as an accountant, and soon after her hiring, a financial advisor in the Line's business. When Sandra joined the company, Kyle didn't want her to feel even more awkward about working not only at her, by then, fiancée's company, but also by having said fiancée be the head of her department. Therefore, he and his father worked out a transfer and Kyle was switched to the head of the marketing and public relations department. Meaning he soon became the face of the company and spent a lot of time discussing contracts face-to-face with his father and possible business clients and investors. This meant that there was a score of employees from the company to invite along with most of the company's clients and investors, most of whom Kyle had actually met.

"You can complain all you want about these annoying wedding rules Victoire," Kyle told her with a smirk, "But you'll be glad that you've been so involved with our wedding planning as you have been, when you and Teddy are in the same boat as us in a few years."

Victoire rolled her eyes as she addressed the envelope in front of her with the names of Xavier's parents: _Katie and Oliver Wood_, "First off, Teddy and I aren't even engaged. Second, don't even go there. My mother is going to be French whirlwind of excessive energy when the time does come. I'm seriously considering talking dad into putting a full-body-bind curse on her until after the wedding is over."

"Trust me, with the energy my Mum's shown, she'd definitely win the 'crazy-mother' award," Kyle argued back.

Victoire inclined her head in Kyle's direction. She'd had a lot to do with the planning of the wedding so far, because she was Sandra's best friend, and therefore maid of honor. Thus, she's had a front row seat to all of Mrs. Line's wedding mania. Since Kyle was an only child, Mrs. Line was pulling out all the stops for her only son's wedding and didn't show any signs of slowing. Sandra and Kyle had agreed early on that they wanted to do a mix of muggle and wizard traditions for their wedding ceremony and reception, and Mrs. Line was only too happy to help. Not only did she enjoy learning about muggle wedding practices, but she could also be heard bragging to her high society pureblooded friends that her son's wedding was going to be so much better and unique compared to all of their children's boring and traditional pureblooded weddings.

Victoire wasn't sure how Sandra usually took her future mother-in-law's praise, but knowing that Mrs. Line only meant it in the nicest way, and that both she and Kyle's father absolutely loved Sandra, Victoire was fine with putting up with Mrs. Line's wedding craze since it was for her friends' benefit.

"Victoire, how do you spell your Aunt Hermione's name again?" Xavier asked. He was writing out an invitation to the wedding for Victoire's Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione Weasley, but Xavier wanted to make sure that the spelling was correct before he addressed it in ink.

"H-E-R-M-I-O-N-E. But really Sandra, you don't have to invite everyone in my family, Merlin knows I have a big one. Besides, Uncle Ron's not really the most patient fellow, just an invite to the reception would probably be enough for him," Victoire said.

Sandra waved Victoire's concern off, "Vic, I've been friends with you for years. I know all of your aunts, uncles, and cousins and I think it would be nice for most of them to be there at the wedding. Besides, what are a few extra dozen guests when we're already inviting Kyle's great-great aunt's third cousin once-removed?"

Kyle rolled his eyes at his fiancée, "That great-great aunt's third cousin once-removed is her personal caregiver. Moreover, said great-great aunt has a whole lot of money and no direct heirs to leave it to. We make a good impression on her and we might just get written into her will."

"And you definitely need more money, you're only heir to your family's entire company and fortune," Xavier said sarcastically.

"Says the guy who's been a profession Quidditch player for the last five years, and whose parents had both been professional Quidditch players for decades before that," Kyle snarked back at his best man.

"We get it okay, both you gits have money. Now can we cut the chatter and get these invitations done? Just looking at the number of people we need to invite to my wedding is making me get cold feet," Sandra told them.

Her words shut them up, and both Xavier and Kyle fell silent. They knew that she was just joking, but neither of them wanted to say something to upset her in anyway, or Godric forbid, make her re-think the wedding. Kyle had proposed to Sandra in May of 2019, and while she had said yes, it had taken him three more years to convince her to settle down and to set a date for their wedding. Once she'd agreed to the end of July in 2022 Kyle had locked it in and made it so that it was almost impossible for her to want to change it by pushing it farther back. Essentially he'd told both his mother and hers, therefore making it impossible for Sandra to change their wedding date.

Victoire had spoken to Sandra about her reluctance to set a wedding date in the first few months after their engagement when she realized that Sandra would change the topic of conversation every time someone brought up the topic of the wedding date. The girls had had a few discussions about it, and Sandra finally admitted to Victoire that she wanted to wait to set the wedding date until she had finished her accounting course and had begun a job. Sandra and Kyle had discussed their plans for the future, and he had agreed with her that it would be best for her to finish her accounting course and start a job before their marriage, especially since it would probably keep his mother from hounding them for grandchildren as soon as their vows traveled out of their lips.

The four of them -the future bride and groom, and their best man and maid of honor- continued working on the invitations in silence until Victoire came across a certain name on her list.

"Sandra, please tell me that you stayed up late into the night to write this list and that half of it was most likely copied down when you were sleep deprived."

"Nope. But why do you ask Vic?"

"Because this must be a mistake."

"What does it say?" Xavier asked as he leaned in to see what she was fussing about.

"This says that I need to address an invitation for my best friend's wedding to _Colton Knott_," Victoire announced, pronouncing the name with great distain.

Colton Knott was a pureblooded Slytherin that went to Hogwarts with Victoire and her friends. For seven years she and he had been, for the lack of a better word, enemies. However, in her last year their relationship had changed into something that, at selected times, could be mistaken for amiable, and culminated with Colton essentially saving her life in the last month of their seventh year, and had the two of them agreeing to basically never talk about it again.

Kyle rolled his eyes at Victoire but didn't speak. He knew how Victoire felt about Colton, but he also knew that _she_ knew how he felt about Colton. Kyle and Colton had been friends as children because their parents ran in the same pureblooded circles, even though the Lines were everything that was nice and polite and the Knotts seemed to be the stereotype of the slimly Slytherin pureblood. When they started Hogwarts, Kyle was sorted into Gryffindor and Colton into Slytherin. In Colton's eyes, that was the end of their friendship, and even though they had a more polite relationship between them than Colton and Victoire's, they still weren't back to the way they were before Hogwarts. The Knotts were old friends and business associates of the Lines so it was given that they would get an invitation to the wedding.

"Victoire, you know why Knott gets an invite to the wedding. I'm not very happy about it, but as Kyle keeps reminding me this is our chance to throw a better party with our friends and family with questionable social standing, than Colton and Anastasia's was with their completely pureblooded family and friends," Sandra reminded her.

"And it was nice of Colton to invite us to their wedding a few years ago, wasn't it?" Kyle asked as he tried once again to warm his fiancée up to the idea of Colton Knott being an _okay_ person.

Sandra obligingly nodded her head while Victoire rolled her eyes. The Knotts were still acquaintances with the Lines, but they never even tried to hide their dislike of Kyle's muggleborn girlfriend-turned-fiancée-soon-to-become-wife. Colton only liked Sandra slightly more than he liked Victoire. Which wasn't a lot. The only reason Sandra had gotten an invite to Colton Knott and Anastasia Greengrass's wedding a few years ago was because Kyle had gotten an invitation, and he added her down as his plus one. He had been counting on the fact that the Knotts had a public image to uphold, one that wouldn't permit them to be caught publicly snubbing Kyle's fiancée by not allowing her to come to the wedding.

"Victoire, you of all people need to learn to handle Colton Knott, after all he does have a rather intricate relationship with Dom," Xavier told her with a smirk.

"Do not remind me Wood," Victoire groaned.

Xavier had been referring to Colton's affiliation with Victoire's younger sister Dominique 'Dom' Weasley. Dom was one and a half years out of Hogwarts and was almost finished her magical law course. The last year of her course involved taking an internship in a law office a few hours a week to accompany her sporadic classes in her last year. Since Dom was near the top of her class in her studies, she won the opportunity to take the best internship offer given to her and her classmates. To Victoire's dismay, that best internship was one with the law office that Colton Knott's father was a partner at, and Colton a junior partner. Dom took the position, and according to her, she was doing a kick-arse job. So, while Victoire was very happy for her two-years younger sister, the downside was that Victoire had to hear _a lot_ more about Colton Knott than she'd ever wanted to.

Before Kyle could try once again to remind Victoire that Colton Knott wasn't _all that bad_, Mrs. Line walked in with a gilded silver serving tray, topped with a delicate and antique looking tea set.

"I thought you guys deserved a little break," she said as she set the tea set down next to Sandra, who had completed the most of the invitations out of all four of them and therefore had the most free space around her.

"Thanks Mum," Kyle said shifting the empty invitations away so that he wouldn't spill on them.

Sandra helped Mrs. Line pour the tea and handed out the cups to Victoire and Xavier.

Victoire picked up the delicate blue-green and white patterned china and looked at it worriedly as if one touch from her would cause a crack, "This isn't some sort of family antique, is it?"

"Why yes it is dear," Mrs. Line told her pleasantly, "This set has been in the family for at least ten generations."

Victoire and Xavier shared a look and softly set their cups and saucers down onto the table in unison.

"Dear me, you guys must still have to go through about half of the invitations," Mrs. Line commented looking at the stacks of invitations that had been addressed, compared to the ones that were empty.

"Yup," Xavier said taking a look at the list of guests they still had to make out invitations to.

"And is it going to be only the four of you to work on them today? Is Ally not coming?" Mrs. Line asked the group in general.

Victoire resisted the urge to shoot a look at Xavier, unlike Sandra and Kyle who couldn't help the reflex of their eyes wandering to Xavier's direction when Mrs. Line casually slipped Ally's name.

There were a few moments of awkward silence before Victoire coughed self-consciously and broke it, "Well, Ally has an upcoming potions exam this week and she's at a group study session today."

"Oh she works so hard. But I had hoped that she would come today to help, at least she would be taking a break from all of her work," Mrs. Line lamented.

Victoire tried not to notice that Sandra and Kyle were still trying to catch Xavier's eye and read his expression. She sighed quietly before answering Mrs. Line, "Well my grandparents have started to re-instate Sunday night family dinners, so I'll see her tonight for a few hours."

Mrs. Line nodded, "That's good, and at least this way you can tell Ally about how far you guys have gotten in the wedding planning today-"

Kyle interrupted his mother and charmingly reminded her about how many invitations they had left to finish. Mrs. Line hadn't realized how she'd created an awkward atmosphere in the room, and Kyle was just trying to nudge her to leave. When she finally caught Kyle's drift, she left the tea set on the table and excused herself from the room.

Once she was gone, Sandra and Kyle quickly and conspicuously busied themselves with the invitations in front of them. During which, they alternated shooting surreptitious looks in Xavier's direction. Victoire wanted to face-palm herself for the both of their actions. She addressed two more invitations before setting her quill down and looking directly at Xavier's face. He was looking down at the envelope in front of him and had his quill poised to write, yet his eyes closed.

"Xavier . . ." Victoire started in her 'do-you-want-to-talk-about-it-voice'.

"Don't bother Vic," he told her quietly as he opened his eyes and sent her look that screamed 'I-don't-want-to-talk-about-it'.

"Xav-" She tried again.

"I'm fine Vic. We just need to finish these invites so I can get back to my flat and get some sleep," Xavier said, his tone trying to come off as light-hearted near the end.

Victoire was going to try one last time to get him to talk to her, but Kyle broke in.

"Don't tell me you had a Quidditch practice this morning. It's a Sunday!" Kyle said in much more convincing and conversational tone.

Xavier knew what his best friend was doing but decided for everyone's sake that he should play along, "Yeah, it was an optional running and workout practice though, and I had nothing to do so I didn't see any harm in it."

"You're muscles are going to see the harm in it tomorrow," Sandra quipped as she dipped her quill into the inkpot.

"Sandra, I'm a professional Quidditch player. I'm used to completely gruelling and pain-inducing workouts," Xavier teasingly reminded her.

"But your body still needs a day off from work Xavier. You practice every day that you don't have a game, and your one day off from any physical activity are the Sundays that you don't play games," Victoire reminded him in a stern tone.

"Thanks Healer Weasley," Xavier told her sarcastically.

Victoire rolled her eyes but didn't even attempt to argue back. He and her friends had been jokingly calling her that since she decided she wanted to be a healer in her fifth year. Their teasing had gotten more prevalent as she'd gotten further and further into her healer training. She was currently halfway through her fourth and last year of her healer-training course. The next step when she graduated at the end of the year was a year residency period in St. Mungo's hospital, which included studying for the official board of health healer exams that she would take after she had successfully completed her residency period. She hadn't earned the title of Healer yet, but her friends were already making use of it.

Victoire took a moment to look at the stack of invitations she still needed to address, and was surprised that she only had about thirty left to do. She grabbed the next invitation to address with a renewed vigour and asked Sandra, "I know why Kyle's other groomsmen aren't able to help us with the invites today, but why couldn't Jenny make it to this fun little get-together?"

Victoire was referring to Sandra's little sister by two years, who although not maid of honour like she'd wanted to be, did hold the honourable title of one of the bridesmaids and was therefore expected to help in some of the wedding preparations.

Sandra rolled her eyes in annoyance as she went to answer Victoire's question, "Several good reasons actually. First, her penmanship is worse than Kyle's. Second, she's mentioned several times that since she's just a bridesmaid and not the maid of honour that she might not be able to clear her schedule as well as she'd like to, to make it to our wedding preparation meetings. Third, this is going to sound really mean, but she's a muggle and she doesn't fully understand everything that will come along with wizarding weddings and magic. And fourth, she's proven that she has a talent for making our get-togethers uncomfortable."

"How so?" Victoire asked, referring to the last part of the Sandra's explanation.

"She's developed a fancy for Xavier," Sandra announced simply.

"What?" Victoire and Xavier cried in unison.

Kyle snickered at their reaction, he, and his fiancée, had already discussed her sister's new-found crush on his best man, "We figured it out last week when we all met to discuss the venue for the reception. She stared at him the whole time, and then wouldn't stop talking about him when we left."

"We?" Sandra asked with an arched eyebrow.

"Dear, in t-minus seven months and counting we're going to be a legal and spiritual unit, so I think we can start practicing sharing praise and blame for ideas," Kyle responded.

"In fact you guys are behind on that, Victoire and Teddy have been using the 'we' instead of 'I' for at least six years," Xavier snickered.

Victoire crumpled up one of the envelopes that she'd made a spelling mistake on and tossed it at Xavier's head. Unfortunately, his professional keeping skills came out and he stopped the paper missile and flung it away.

"So if that's how things work when you get married, does that mean that Sandra will get the praise when you acquire new clients for your company?" Victoire asked in a cheeky tone.

"I doubt it would be possible to give her any more praise for new clients than she already gets. I spent two hours with our newest client, trying to convince him to do business with us and I hadn't made it any farther than the start line, when one of our interns came in and gave us the newest financial projections report that Sandra had just happened to put together. He flipped through the report, and in five minutes he'd decided to double his offer and was saying that it would be an honour to do business with us," Kyle said with a very, very proud, and self-satisfied air.

"I bet he would have tripled his offer is Sandra had delivered the report herself," Xavier said as he shot Sandra a wink.

Sandra blushed and kept her eyes down to where she was addressing an envelope to her muggle grandparents.

"Stop it you're embarrassing her," Victoire chided.

Sandra gave her best mate a thankful smile and tried to laugh off her embarrassment, "Don't worry about me, I think Kyle's trying to make it his mission to embarrass me in front of my co-workers when we're at work."

Kyle chuckled, threw an arm over his fiancée's shoulder, and pulled her close so he could kiss her temple, "You know that I don't mean any harm when I stop by and visit . . . and to make sure that all of your male co-workers are keeping their hands to themselves."

"Well don't you just sound like an over-controlling fiancée, I bet you don't like those blokes just talking to her either," Victoire asked with an arched eyebrow.

"They can talk about work all they want, everything else is them just trying to flirt," Kyle pouted.

"I wouldn't put it past you to put all those guys who try to talk to her on report either," Xavier said to Kyle.

"He actually did try that my first few weeks, but then I made him stop," Sandra told them with a laugh.

Kyle frowned at his fiancée, "You promised you wouldn't tell them about that!"

Victoire giggled while Sandra tried to calm Kyle's ruffled feathers, "They're our best friends Kyle. They're not going to think anything less of you because of that."

"Well I wouldn't have had to put those guys on report if they hadn't tried to flirt with you," Kyle muttered.

"Wait," Victoire started slowly, "They flirted with a woman wearing and engagement ring?"

"How could they miss that rock? It's the size of Canada," Xavier said gesturing to the huge diamond on Sandra's left ring finger. It was another family heirloom of some sort.

"I didn't wear it my first week there. I didn't want people to know that I was engaged to the owner's son," Sandra explained as she twisted said engagement ring around her finger.

"I mean, I wouldn't want people to think I was engaged to Kyle either, but if you didn't want to wear the rock, you could have said no when Kyle first got down on one knee," Victoire said playfully.

Kyle rolled his eyes, "She just didn't want people to think that she got her job just because of our relationship."

"Understandable," Xavier agreed while Victoire nodded her head.

"But I was back to wearing it after a week working there. Kyle's dad came down to my office to see how my first week had gone, and he kinda let the cat out of the bag then," Sandra explained.

"Hey! I'm out of envelopes!" Victoire called excitedly as she placed her quill to rest in the closest inkpot.

"Me too!" Xavier announced excitedly as he finished writing the last letter of the name on the last envelope he had to address.

"Je suis fini," Kyle said excitedly, demonstrating one of the few sentences of French he actually knew how to speak despite the fact that both his mother and father could speak it fluently.

"And . . . finished," Sandra agreed placing her last invitation into the already addressed envelope and sealing it with her wand.

"Perfect," Victoire said glancing down at her watch, "Just enough time to go back to my flat and get a nap before heading off to family dinner."

"It's three-thirty Vic, how much of a nap could you actually get before heading to your grandparents for dinner?" Sandra asked as she started to shuffle the invitations into neat little piles.

"Even an hour of extra sleep would be a big help right about now," Victoire said rubbing her eyes tiredly.

"Oh Vic, are you still not sleeping well?" Sandra asked, her eyes growing wide with concern.

"Do I ever sleep well when he's away?" Victoire asked rhetorically.

"According to you, no," Kyle answered her.

"That was rhetorical Kyle."

"I know."

"Then why did you answer?"

"Because I felt like it."

"You're a nutter."

"Yup."

Despite her best effort, Kyle's antics made a smile bloom across Victoire's face. Which she knew was his intention.

"I'm going back to my apartment and to pass out. If I sleep through the alarm I'll set on my clock, and my family calls any of you asking where I am, tell them I probably just slept through my wake-up call," Victoire told them as she stood up from the table and moved towards the exit.

"I'll go with you, I could use some extra shuteye too," Xavier said standing up and walking with her.

"You've got your own flat to sleep at," Victoire said nudging him in the shoulder.

Xavier rolled his eyes before looking at her sincerely, "Do you want to talk . . . about Teddy?"

Victoire shook her head hard, "No. . . do you want to talk about Ally?"

Xavier shook his head too.

They continued their journey to the foyer of the Line's mansion in silence.

* * *

**Author's Note:** Well, I hope that everyone enjoyed that, the first chapter of **Life After Hogwarts**!

Please don't forget to tell me your thoughts or ask me you questions in your reviews or PMs :)

For those of you coming from **TTA**, tell me what you think.

For those of you just meeting these characters, please also tell me what you think and ask questions if you'd like because I do try to answer most questions asked in both reviews and PMs, but just remember that this story will have a lot to go, and some of the questions you may have I may tell you to sit on because they'll be answered at a later date.

**Updating schedule:** Well, I like to have chapters written up a head of time before I start to update because I usually give you one once a week when I have a stick pile, but I have no stock pile, so the next update of this story will definitely be in the new year, and may be even a month or more after that. I will try to update as I write though, even if that means the updates will be more sporadic, because I'd really like to see how everyone feels about the chapters and the way the plot is going, because I am writing this sequel for all of you!

So, in the mean time it would probably be best to add this story t your story alert, me to your author alert, and to follow this story on Twitter (**Try and Tri Again**) to know as soon as I update, and maybe even a little before I plan to.

I hope everyone enjoys their holidays, and I'll update in the new year :)


	3. Questions and Answers

**A/N: **Hey guys! Thanks for waiting until the end of January for this update. I really needed some time to write a little bit and get re-accustomed to my new classes this semester so thanks to everyone who's waited so patiently :)

**IMPORTANT TO READ:** Okay, so let's remember that this is a new story, and that this is only the second chapter. That being said, since this story starts after four years, every few chapters there is going to be sort of a flashback chapter that shows something that happened before the time this story is set.

So on top of every new chapter I will put the date that it occurs. Last chapter was January 16th 2022, this chapter is May 24th 2019.

Now, I know that this is going to look weird and that it might get a little confusing, but by now I think you all trust me to be able to write a coherent story, and believe me when I say that what I write is necessary to the story, but you just might not realize it until later.

So, just please enjoy this chapter, it actually took me a long time to write.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own anything resembling J. K. R.'s _Harry Potter_.

* * *

**Questions and Answers**

**Friday, May 24****th**** 2019**

"Is that all of the boxes?" Victoire called back to Sandra as she deposited the last cardboard box she was holding on top of another pile of boxes that filled almost every horizontal surface of the new flat.

"I've got the last one right here," Sandra's voice called out from behind a tall brown box that she was carrying into the entrance way. She stopped as soon as she made it through the doorway so she could kick the door closed behind her.

For the first time since Victoire had started to move boxes into the flat, she took a moment to look around her and take in the apartment. It was only the third time she had ever seen the flat, and it definitely looked different now that it was filled with dozens of boxes and hastily placed furniture. The walls in the entranceway and living room were a plain off-white colour, the walls of the kitchen and dining room which Victoire could see because of the semi-open floor plan were a burnt orange colour, and from what she could remember, the master bedroom and spare bedroom were a light green colour, and the bathrooms both a blue-grey. She looked back to the piles of boxes and sighed.

"Bloody hell you two have a lot of crap."

Sandra rolled her eyes as she glanced around at all of the labelled boxes, and tried to mentally account for everything in them, "That's what happens when two separate people decide to merge almost all of their worldly possessions into one flat. And then decide to buy all new furniture too."

"Good point," Victoire said as she threw herself onto one of the light brown leather couches, "Kyle is packrat and loves his stuff."

Sandra nodded and collapsed into one of the brand-new easy chairs. All of the furniture had been ceremoniously dumped into open places since Kyle and Sandra had decided to move into their new flat in the span of two days. The first day was dedicated to the delivery of the furniture, and the second day was for Victoire and Sandra to move the boxes of smaller items into the flat. Because of this, none of the furniture was laid out in a proper floor plan, so the chair Sandra chose to sit in was backward facing to Victoire, and she had to peek around the side to see her friend.

"Would you believe that he actually has more stuff then this? Everything in these boxes is mine from _our _flat, or his from his and Xavier's flat from last year. He still has a lot of stuff left in his room at his parents' house," Sandra told her best mate.

Their first year after their graduation from Hogwarts Victoire and Sandra had moved into a flat together, and Xavier and Kyle had decided to live together also. Xavier wanted a place that wasn't his parents' crazy-filled house -not that he didn't love his parents and his new baby brother- and Kyle had wanted some independence from his own parents, who were sure to begin hovering over him -because of his only-child status- once he was out of Hogwarts. After almost a year in the 'real world', Kyle had convinced Sandra (with a lot of begging) to move in together into their own flat. With the loss of their flatmates, Xavier had decided to move into an open luxury flat in his professional Quidditch team's apartment building so he could be closer to his team and their Quidditch pitch. While Victoire had decided that the open room in her flat would be perfect for her cousin Ally, who would be graduating from Hogwarts at the end of June, and most likely looking to move out of _her_ own parents' house.

"Seriously?" Victoire asked not believing that Kyle could actually own more objects.

"Well, to be fair most of the stuff at his parents' house is his really fancy dress robes and childhood mementos," Sandra replied.

"Ah yes, I take it he only boxed up the essentials for your flat. You know, left his first goblin-made solid silver spoon at his parents' house in a box labelled 'possessions from infancy'," Victoire said sarcastically.

If Sandra had had the chance to empty some of her boxes, she would have thrown a throw pillow at Victoire. But since she was pillow-less, she settled for flashing her friend a rude hand gesture.

"Real mature Sandra, I hope this is how you act tonight at the party," Victoire teased.

Sandra groaned, "Yeah, no. Moreover, you had better not act that way tonight either. It's Kyle's parents' twentieth wedding anniversary and we have to be on out best behaviour."

"We?" Victoire asked as one blonde brow rose on her forehead.

"Fine. _You_. You have to be on your best behaviour," Sandra revised giving her friend a specific look.

Victoire waved her off, "I'm not going to do anything to embarrass you, don't worry. But I can't promise not to do something to embarrass Kyle."

Sandra rolled her eyes, "I can't believe you're even agreeing to go tonight. Not that it's not a nice gesture, but I'm still surprised."

"Why?"

"Well, first you have to dress up in fancy clothes _and_ shoes because the event is completely formal. Second, it may be a Friday evening but you have exams from your first year in your healing course coming up and you've been studying like crazy for them. Third, I really can't believe you convinced Teddy to come even though he'll be coming off a twenty-hour auror shift," Sandra said with a bit of disbelief.

"All I had to do was mention the free alcohol that the Lines' are going to provide, and promise to wear one of my slinkier dresses," Victoire replied with a wink.

Sandra chuckled at that.

"Plus, Kyle pretty much begged me to come to the party. Got down on his knees, almost cried and everything," Victoire said.

Sandra's facial expression turned surprised, "Really? He must truly be worried about me being alone with all of pureblooded family and acquaintances tonight, if he needed to make sure that you'd come."

"Oh no. Sandra he's not worried about you being around his family's acquaintances. He probably just wanted to make sure that you, he, and Colton Knott weren't the only ones our age at the party," Victoire tried to convince her.

Sandra sighed, "I know. _I'm_ worried about being there tonight surrounded by his family's friends."

"Don't be. You're fantastic and if his parents' friends don't see that, then that's their loss."

"Yeah, but this is first time that I'm going to meet pretty much all of his family and parents' friends. I've met a few over the course of our relationship, but never this many all at one time," Sandra said fretfully.

Victoire gave her friend a concerned look, "Sandra everything will be fine."

"They're expecting a guest list of like two hundred people. For an anniversary party."

"Well they _are_ purebloods," Victoire said with a shrug as if that explained everything.

The look on Sandra's face told Victoire that her flippant response was not appreciated. Victoire sighed, and got up from the rather comfortable couch and walked over to the easy chair Sandra was sitting in. She took a seat on the open armrest and placed a gentle hand on her best mate's shoulder.

"Look, everything will be fine tonight. We will get dressed up all nice, eat some good food, dance a bit, maybe –no definitely- get sloshed because it'll be the only way we will be able to convince Xavier to dance, and if we're still not having fun by then I'll think of a prank we can pull on Colton Knott," Victoire said with a sly grin.

"We?" Sandra asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Fine. Xavier and I then," Victoire replied.

Sandra smiled for a minute, but then it disappeared, "I'm still really worried about embarrassing myself."

Victoire shot her friend a gentle look, "Listen, if I hear some gossipy old busybodies talking trash about you behind your back, I'll just make a scene to take the attention off of you, and onto me."

Sandra's smile looked more natural this time, "Thanks. I appreciate the offer."

"Now," Victoire said as she stood up, stretched her arms above her head, and glanced around the room at the piles, upon piles, of boxes, "Which rooms should we move which boxes into?"

Sandra stood up also and looked at her watch, "We can leave it for now. I have to be at Kyle's parents' house soon; I'm getting ready there. And you probably want to go back to your flat and squeeze in some quiet studying time before you have to get ready for the party tonight."

"Are you sure we should just leave everything? There are boxes everywhere," Victoire said with a bit of concern as she looked at the little free space on the floor for walking.

Sandra nodded her head, "Yeah. Kyle just said to get everything into the new apartment and that we'll arrange things tomorrow. When I last saw him today he told me, and I quote, 'just make sure that there is a pathway from the front door to the bedroom so we don't bump into anything in the dark tonight'."

"Why just a pathway from the front door to the bed?" Victoire asked in confusion.

Sandra arched an eyebrow on her forehead and gave her friend a look.

Soon after a look of comprehension came across Victoire's face, which quickly changed into a look of disgust, "Oh, gross. I do not need a visual like that in my head."

"You asked," Sandra told her simply.

"And I really wish I hadn't," Victoire said, her face still in a sour expression as she walked over to the foyer of the apartment where she'd kicked off her trainers when all of the boxes had been brought in.

"So when do you think you'll get to the party?" Sandra asked as Victoire put her shoes back on.

"Well it starts at eight, but Teddy probably won't get off until eight-thirty. Then it'll probably take him another half hour to file his paper work at his flat, shower, and change, so he'll be ready to go around nine. I think I'll come before him though, because I'm not going to leave you alone at the party with only Kyle and Xavier for company, that would just be mean," Victoire said shooting Sandra a cheeky wink.

Sandra laughed as she walked with her friend to the front door, "Well that's very nice of you. So I'll see you at the Line's around eight then?"

"Yup," Victoire said cheerily as she gave her friend a goodbye hug before apparating away.

* * *

Since the Line family had an absolutely humongous mansion, the anniversary party was to be held at their home in both the principle and secondary ballrooms. Victoire knew that Sandra had to be at the Lines' house before the party to help Mrs. Line with the last minute party preparations, and that since Sandra was planning on staying there to get ready, that she would be there at the party no matter how early Victoire decided to go.

By the time Victoire had finished going over her notes on emergency medical spells for her first Healing school exam on the following Tuesday, she only had a half hour left to make something quick to eat and get ready for the anniversary party. She ended up arriving to the Line's party ten minutes late because as she was leaving –to arrive on time- she was sidetracked by an owl knocking on her kitchen window and delivering a pair of deadly high heeled shoes that her younger sister Dom had sent her all the way from Hogwarts. Victoire wasn't too surprised to see that Dom had sent her a pair of five-inch-heels as she and her sister had almost opposite ideas of fashion. Victoire liked pretty; yet comfortable, while Dom leaned more to the edgy and stylish side, no matter how uncomfortable the clothing might be. As such, Dom had a habit of arranging proper footwear for her sister, and anybody else who would _dare _wear a flat shoe on any formal occasion. Victoire knew that even though her sister wasn't physically there to argue with her, it wasn't worth it to ignore her gift, so she had to go back to her closet and put away the shoes she was planning to wear in exchange for the new ones Dom sent her. The reason she was ten minutes late to the party was because Victoire had taken two steps in her new heels and ended up tripping over her own feet and knocking over a tiny table filled with family pictures that was in the hallway that attached her bedroom to the living room. It had taken her eight minutes to stand up on her heels without falling over again, and only two minutes to pull out her wand and magik the table and picture frames back into place.

When Victoire had finally arrived at the party –only ten minutes late- the Lines' mansion was already filled with the sounds of chattering voices mixed with dancing music. At first glance into the main ballroom, she didn't recognize any faces. However, that, in no means, deterred her from strutting into the ballroom and casually looking around for someone she knew.

Victoire had just made it to the far right side of the room where there looked to be a fully supplied bar, when she heard a familiar voice behind her call out her name.

She turned around and gave a big hug to the tall dirty-blonde haired man who had approached her. When she pulled back, she let her eyes wander down his lanky yet muscular suit-clad build, "You clean up good there Wood. And I see you got Kyle's memo about _not_ wearing one of your Puddlemere United ties."

Victoire's comment didn't get the reaction she'd expected from Xavier. Instead of one of his laughs or even a roll of his eyes, she got an opened mouthed stare that was centred on her body, not her face.

"Xavier . . . ?" Victoire asked a little uncertainly.

"Umm . . . Vic, can I be honest with you?" Xavier asked, his mouth finally working even though his eyes were still transfixed on her dress.

"'Course you can Xavier, what's up?"

"Well, no offense, but you look like a slag," Xavier told her bluntly when he finally peeled his eyes off her tiny dress and moved them up to her face.

"First, saying 'no offence' and then saying something offensive doesn't make it any less offensive. Second, thank you, this is the look I was going for," Victoire told him simply.

"You want to look like a slag?" Xavier asked in confusion.

"Yes."

Victoire hadn't been kidding when she'd told Sandra earlier in the day that she'd promised Teddy that she'd wear one of her slinkier dresses. In fact, she had to go out and buy a particular tight and sexy dress, just for the occasion. The dress Victoire had picked out was a tight metallic gold-coloured silk spaghetti strapped number with a deep V-neck that hugged her body all the way down to the hemline that ended an inch above her knees, complete with a slit up the back of the skirt that made it a bit easier for her to walk. The shoes Dom had sent Victoire to match the dress were the same metallic gold colour, and were rather simple patent-leather peep-toed pumps with a five-inch stiletto heel and one simple band that wrapped around either ankle. The dress was tight, short, and showed a lot of skin, but without being tasteless, the high-heeled shoes made her legs look longer, but she kept her make-up and jewelry simple, and her long blonde hair down and straight to keep her look classy, if not a little suggestive.

Xavier was just surprised that Victoire had decided to wear something so racy when he knew that she disliked the amount of unwanted attention she usually got from males when she was wearing regular clothes, let alone the skimpy dress she presently had on. He knew better than to argue with Victoire though, so he moved beside her and ordered the both of them drinks from the bartender. When Xavier noticed the bartender's appreciative eye for Victoire's dress, he wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her close to him so that he could be justifiable in giving the bartender a dirty look.

Once the pair had grabbed their drinks and started to journey away from the bar Xavier removed his arm from Victoire's waist and the two began to look for their best friends in the very large crowd. The music being played in the ballroom was loud enough for those who chose to dance in the middle to hear it, but not so loud that the guests had to yell to be heard over it. As the two traveled around the room, they were able to spot a few guests whom the recognized, but they were not to be deterred on their mission to find Sandra and/or Kyle among the roughly one-hundred and fifty people who were already at the party.

"Xavier! Victoire!"

Xavier groaned when he heard his name being yelled, but Victoire stopped him from trying to escape into the crowd and forced him to do an about-face by grabbing his elbow.

"Don't be a coward," she hissed at him before placing a huge smile on her face and greeting the couple who walked over to them, "Hi Katie, hi Oliver!"

Katie Bell-Wood grabbed Victoire in a tight hug before letting go to accost her son with a hug that was even tighter.

"Uh, Mum, I can't really breathe like this," Xavier complained. While he tried to extricate himself from Katie's hug, Victoire greeted his father Oliver.

"So who ended up with Brogan for the night?" Victoire asked Xavier's parents. Brogan Wood was Xavier's baby brother, who had turned a year old just a few days ago.

"Katie's parents have him," Oliver answered.

"Thank goodness it wasn't Dad's mother and father, that would have been child endangerment," Xavier muttered. He still hadn't gotten over the fact that his father's mother actually put a sticking charm on him when he was four so that he would stay at the dinner table until he finished eating all of his Brussels sprouts.

Xavier's words prompted Katie to give her husband a look that said 'see-I-told-you-I'm-not-the-only-one-who-thinks-your-parents-are-crazy'. Oliver just rolled his eyes at his wife before grabbing her arm and pulling her to his side so he could wrap his arm around her waist.

"So are you going stag tonight like Xavier, Victoire?" Katie asked interestedly.

Xavier's girlfriend of one year and five months was Victoire's cousin Alexandra 'Ally' Weasley. She is a year younger than Victoire and Xavier, so she was still at Hogwarts finishing her last year. Consequently, Xavier had been attending most parties during the past year, including the present one, solo.

Victoire shook her head, "No, Teddy has to work until eight-thirty, but he'll be here as soon as he can."

"If you sent him a picture of you in that dress he'd probably get here sooner," Katie mused.

"Probably, but he's still in his first year as a fully-qualified auror so he really can't afford to be trying to leave early from work yet," Victoire explained.

The four continued to talk for a bit until Katie abruptly stopped the conversation and dragged Oliver towards the middle of the room where people were just starting to dance to a new slow song choice.

"That's the song they danced their first dance to at their wedding," Xavier told Victoire to explain his mother's sudden desire to dance.

"Aww, that's so sweet-" Victoire was going to say more, but a tap on her bare left shoulder interrupted her. She turned around to see an older man in his mid-fifties, who she vaguely recognized as some ancient ministry bigwig.

"May I have a dance Miss Weasley?" the familiar but still nameless man asked her.

Because of Victoire's participation and resulting win of the Tri-Wizard Tournament that took place her last year of Hogwarts; her face had been in almost endlessly in the papers and magazines a year ago. She was therefore well-known to many people she'd probably never spoken more than ten words to.

"Um . . ." She deliberated trying to come up with an excuse that didn't _sound_ like a hasty excuse.

"I'm sure Miss Weasley would love to dance, but I'm afraid that her card is filled for a little while. As it is, this dance is mine," Xavier told the man charmingly before sweeping Victoire away and onto the dance floor.

Victoire thanked Xavier for saving her but then bit her lip in worry, "I hope this doesn't start rumours though."

Xavier had signed to be the brand new keeper for Puddlemere United Quidditch team (a spot that his father had held until he decided to retire and it was offered to Xavier) before he had even finished his seventh-year of Hogwarts. For the last year and a half, he had been dubbed the top Rookie Quidditch player of the year, as well as having earned one of the top five spots on _Witch Weekly's_ list of Quidditch's most eligible bachelors.

"It's not like it would be the first though," Xavier countered needlessly reminding her of the, roughly, four month span of time that people had thought that they were dating during their seventh-year. Anything concerning Victoire's private life was considered tabloid gold during the eight months that she was a Hogwarts' champion in the Tri Wizard Tournament, and annoyingly enough the media supported the purported rumour that Xavier Wood and Victoire Weasley were in a relationship.

The two continued to dance in a comfortable silence for a few moments until Xavier had the bright idea to try to spin Victoire around and dip her. Victoire had to hold on tightly to the lapels of Xavier's dress robes when he dipped her, and she only released her hold when she was back to standing up properly on her feet. The song they were dancing to came to an end and a faster paced one began in its place.

"May I cut in?"

Victoire and Xavier spun around on their heels (which was much more difficult for Victoire to do) and stared in surprise at the interrupter.

"How in the world did you get out?" Victoire blurted, her mouth getting ahead of her brain for the moment.

Ally Weasley, who had been prepared for several different reactions to her presence, gave her blonde-haired cousin a look, "Well if you don't want me to be here then I'll just leave."

Victoire laughed when she saw Ally make a show of turning around and preparing to walk away from them.

"No, no. We want you to stay, don't we Xavier?" Victoire said turning to face him. She had been very surprised that he hadn't said anything yet about his girlfriend appearing out of nowhere and being at the Lines' anniversary party, even though she should still be at Hogwarts as she was still a month shy of graduating. When she looked at Xavier, she realized why he hadn't been talking. He seemed too busy ogling his dress-clad girlfriend to say anything to her.

Even though Victoire was surprised to see Ally, she couldn't deny that her cousin had definitely come prepared for the party. Ally was wearing a strapless, light purple coloured dress with a strapless crumb-catcher neckline. The fabric of the dress flowed lightly down Ally's body until it ended just below her knees at the front, and diagonally down the sides until it ended up within an inch of the floor at the back of the dress. Her shoes –which Victoire didn't doubt had to go through Dom's authorization process-, had a stiletto heel that was two-inches shorter than Victoire's, and were a sparkly silver colour with rhinestones on the strappy front. Ally also decided to do her make-up and jewelry simply, and her black hair was up in a simple bun that was positioned low on the left side of her head.

"Maybe if Xavier were to say something I'd believe that he's happy to see me," Ally playfully told her cousin.

Victoire nodded and then not-so-delicately pressed down on Xavier's foot with the not-pointy part of her shoe to get his attention. The sudden rush of pain to his foot seemed to work, and Xavier snapped out of whatever metaphorical spell Ally's appearance had cast on him.

"Aren't you supposed to be in school?"

In her head, Victoire introduced her palm to her face, but aloud she was a bit more controlled, "Xav, I don't think that's the first thing you're supposed to say to your girlfriend whom you haven't seen in two months."

Xavier's eyes went wide, as he had just come to terms with what he'd actually said, and he tried to backpedal, "No that's not- I'm mean- I mean I didn't mean to-"

Victoire sighed and decided to clear everything up before Xavier put his other foot in his mouth, "Maybe if you just explain why you're here when you should be elsewhere, we'd be able to move on from the question."

Ally nodded, giggling a little at the fact that she'd caught Xavier so off guard, "Kyle came to Hogwarts personally a month ago, and pretty much begged Professor McGonagall to allow me to come to his parents' anniversary party tonight. I'm not very sure why he did, or why she agreed in the first place because they were having a whispered conversation that they didn't want me listening to, but she agreed. So here I am."

Victoire's forehead scrunched up, "Really? Because I was going to skip the party tonight because I have exams to study for and because Teddy's coming off a twenty-hour shift, but Kyle begged me to come and to convince Teddy to come too."

"Weird," Ally replied before turning to face Xavier, "Hi."

"Hi," Xavier replied his mouth transforming into a huge smile, "You look gorgeous."

Ally blushed and stepped up to Xavier's side. He wrapped an arm around her waist, and moved the other to the back of her head. Victoire could see where the situation was going and was certain that they didn't need her there anymore.

"'K, bye," She told them before unceremoniously turning on her heel and walking away from the couple. On her way out of the dance-floor portion of the room, she saw the back of a couple several meters away that she was certain were Sandra and Kyle. She started to walk towards them, but a large group of people from the bar area beside her crossed in front of her to make their way to another part of the room, and by the time they had cleared she had lost sight of her best mate and her boyfriend. She paused for a moment near one of the bars to see if she could find her friends again.

While she searched, a pair of hands suddenly wrapped around her waist from behind her and came to rest on her stomach, while a warm pair of lips simultaneously dropped a kiss on the top of her bare left shoulder.

"You're lucky I didn't pull my wand out and hex you," Victoire told the man as he shifted her hair away from her back so that he could place a kiss on the white semi-circular scar on her left shoulder blade.

"Really, you have your wand on you? Because this dress leaves nothing to the imagination, which means that you must have gotten creative if you're telling the truth when you say that you have your wand on you."

Victoire rolled her eyes before turning around in Teddy's arms so that she could face her boyfriend, "So what time did you finally get away from the Auror Department at?"

Teddy Lupin smiled at her and gave her lips a quick kiss hello before answering, "Twenty-five minutes ago. Only took me fifteen minutes to get ready."

"You can tell it only took you fifteen minutes to get ready," Victoire teased as she leaned into him so she could straighten his tie.

"Is that really the kind of greeting I'm going to get? Because I could just go back to my flat and sleep instead. I have been at the auror office for the last twenty-hours," Teddy teased back as he wrapped her in a tight embrace.

Victoire rolled her eyes, "C'mon, maybe if we get some alcohol into you, you'll loosen up."

Teddy's arms wrapped around her waist and stopped her from moving towards the bar, "I think you owe me a kiss first."

She crossed her arms in front of her chest and arched a blonde brow, "I don't think I owe you one actually. All I promised you was free alcohol and a skimpy dress. Which I've delivered."

"Oh my bad. Next time I'll remember to add a 'hello' kiss to the contract. Does that mean that I'm going to have to wait _all_ the way until the end of the night for a 'goodbye' one?" Teddy fake-pouted.

"Technically if we go home together after this, you won't even get a 'goodbye' kiss," Victoire pointed out.

"But I could definitely get a 'goodnight' kiss that way," he argued.

"Only if the night is in fact 'a good one'."

"I guess I'll just have to wait until the end of the night to find out if it was one then. So, after the party, your place, or mine?" Teddy asked with a cheeky grin.

Victoire put on a thoughtful expression, "Well, Sandra's moved in with Kyle now so the only person living in my apartment right now is me, and I don't have any changes of clothes at your flat, so-"

"Mine it is then," Teddy decided with a wicked smile.

Victoire just rolled her eyes and placed her hands on his chest, one on either side of his tie, "You know how I said that I'm not going to give you a 'hello' kiss."

"Yeah."

"I didn't say anything about not giving you a 'hello snog'."

"Loophole. I like it," Teddy said with a grin before tilting his head down, so that he could press his lips to hers.

Victoire smiled into the kiss and her hands slid up from their position on Teddy's chest and into his currently blue hair. One of Teddy's hands stayed around her waist while the other moved up her back to rest between her bare shoulder blades. Their kiss had quickly past the short-and-sweet category and was in the middle of the hot-and-heated range when a voice interrupted them.

"You are always _so_ classy Weasley."

Victoire separated her mouth from Teddy's but didn't bother to put too much space between them. She turned her head so that she could glare at the man whom the derisive comment came from.

"Aren't I just Knott?" She replied to the annoying blonde.

Colton Knott, the tall, blonde, pure-blooded Slytherin alumnus, stood before Victoire and Teddy in a smart pair of black dress robes with a deep purple tie. His accessory for the night seemed to be a deep purple dress-clad Anastasia Greengrass who had an icy yet untouchable beauty about her as she stood close to his side, her usually aloof expression twisted into one of distaste as she surveyed the other pair.

Colton rolled his eyes at Victoire, an expression that she'd seen more often than she could count over the seven years they spent together at Hogwarts, and retorted, "Yes you've always been the epitome of sophistication. But perhaps you could try your best to act like an actual proper member of polite society tonight and not embarrass the Lines who must have taken pity on you to invite you to this party."

"I'll have you know Colton that Kyle practically begged me to come tonight. I'm assuming it was because he didn't want his only age confederate at the party to be you," Victoire commented airily.

"Or maybe he invited you because he expected you to do something irresponsible and wanted you to be the entertainment."

"You know what Colton? You can just f-" Victoire's words were cut-off when Teddy slipped his hand over her mouth.

"Have either of you seen Kyle and Sandra recently? We haven't had the chance to greet them yet." Teddy asked the two of them politely, acting as if he wasn't restraining his girlfriend from yelling inappropriate things at them.

"Kyle was near the piano on the far side of the room a few minutes ago-" Colton started before being interrupted by his own girlfriend.

"As for the muggleborn, I haven't had the _pleasure_ of running into her yet tonight," Anastasia replied contemptuously.

Victoire clenched her teeth and removed Teddy's hand from in front of her mouth and held it down at her side, "'Stasia dear, that colour of green doesn't suit you."

"I'm not wearing green Weasley," Anastasia explained as she glanced down at her dark purple ball gown.

"Oh, my bad. Your envy is just so palpable it took physical form," Victoire countered.

"Why in the world would I be jealous of Collins?"

"Because Kyle's with her because he _loves_ her and her personality, and not because of her family history and place in society."

Victoire walked away from Colton and Anastasia, dragging Teddy with her by the hand, before either of them could drum up a response to her last comment. As she was slighting Anastasia, she saw a glimpse of her best mate on the other side of the room near the grand piano like Colton had said. Victoire and Teddy travelled to the other side of the room to where Sandra Collins and Kyle Line were having a conversation. Victoire, having absolutely no qualms about interrupting whatever topic they were discussing, addressed her best mate with a tight hug and a greeting so bright it was hard to believe that it had only actually been about five hours since they'd last seen each other.

"You look phenomenal!" Victoire said taking a step back from Sandra and giving her appearance a good look.

Sandra was wearing a flowy, floor-length, deep emerald-green backless gown with a cowl-neckline in the front just low enough to show the large golf-ball shaped emerald pendant that rested on a simple but beautifully crafted gold chain around her neck. The necklace was an antique goblin-made Line family heirloom that Kyle had given Sandra the Valentine's Day of their last year at Hogwarts. Since the necklace was such a showstopper, the rest of Sandra's jewelry was simple along with her make-up and hair, which had been left in its naturally curly shoulder length style.

"Thanks, and you look . . ." Sandra trailed off at a loss for words at first.

Victoire laughed, "Yeah, Xavier already told me that I look like a slag."

"Isn't that the look you were going for though?" Sandra asked.

"Yup."

"Women are weird," Kyle commented having listened to Victoire and Sandra's exchange.

"How so?" Victoire asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Because you say that you specifically dressed to look like a slag. But if someone actually came out and called you one, you'd flip at them."

Victoire rolled her eyes, "Looking like a slag, and someone actually calling you one is two different things. You can't be certain of someone's personality just by the way they dress. Sure, their clothing may give you clues, but it's mostly inferences people make not real observations. You can't actually claim to know someone without actually speaking to them, and therefore making deductions based on looks before talking to someone doesn't give you enough indication to judge their personality."

"Well said," Ally commented as she and Xavier joined their group. They said their hellos to everyone before the conversation between the three girls quickly went to their outfit choices for the night.

"Dom told me before I left the school this evening that she'd sent you shoes, I'm just really surprised that you decided to wear them," Ally told Victoire as she glanced down at the tall gold heels her cousin was teetering on.

"I figured that it wasn't worth fighting with her, because she'd have some way of knowing if I didn't wear them. But I see that she got to you too," Victoire replied nodding to Ally's shorter but still dangerous-looking stilettos.

"Yeah," Ally sighed, "Did Dom get you too?" Ally asked Sandra. Out of all of the girls, Sandra's style was the least 'girly'.

"She sent me a pair, but I went with these," Sandra told them with a smirk before rising up the hem of her dress off the floor and to her ankle. She stuck her foot out so that they could see the simple black patent leather ballet flat.

"No way. How the hell did you get away with a flat shoe?" Victoire asked one part angry that she wasn't brave enough to ignore Dom's 'help', and two parts impressed with Sandra's bravery.

"My dress is supposed to touch the floor, so no one will really see my shoes anyway," Sandra explained her reasoning.

"I should have thought of that," Ally sighed while Victoire nodded in agreement.

The three boys, who had been having a discussion about Xavier's upcoming Quidditch game in two days, re-entered the girls' conversation.

"C'mon, it's time for the speeches," Kyle said grabbing Sandra's hand and gesturing for his friends to follow him.

They three pairs walked a little ways away from the piano and towards one of the catering wizards who had a tray full of champagne-filled glass flutes. Each grabbed one and stood a little off to the side of a small platform where a microphone stood. Kyle explained that his parents wanted to say a small speech to all of their guests. Soon, the dancing music stopped and Kyle's parents made their way to the small platform so that they could make their speech. It was short, simple, but very sweet, and at the end, Kyle's father had announced a surprise for his wife. He announced that he'd arranged for the singer and band that wrote and performed the song they danced their first dance to at their wedding to come and play so that they could recreate the moment. Mrs. Line started to tear up a bit when the crowd toasted them with their champagne, and when her husband led her onto the dance floor where they began their dance. As they twirled around the floor, Kyle explained to his friends that the band was a group that had been famous twenty years ago around the time his parents got married.

When the song was starting to end Kyle took his and Sandra's half-finished champagne glasses and placed them back on the tray of the waiter who was still standing near them.

Sandra looked at Kyle in confusion as he grabbed her hand and started to tow her towards the stage.

"I have a speech to make," Kyle explained.

"And you need me?" Sandra asked in confusion. She hadn't known that Kyle planned to say anything.

He gave her a nervous smile in return, "All you really need to do is stand there."

Sandra was still a little confused but she let her boyfriend pull her onto the small platform. Kyle's parents had just finished their dance and walked over to the side of the platform where Victoire was standing with Teddy, Ally, and Xavier.

On the platform, Kyle picked up the microphone, "Good evening everyone. For those of you who don't recognize me, meaning those who haven't seen me since I was this-" Kyle motioned to a height around his knee, "-high, I'm Kyle, Marshall and Geneviève's son. I'm up here because I'd like to congratulate my parents on their amazing twenty-years of marriage, and to be one of the first to wish them many more. My parents' marriage has lasted so blissfully long, and will continue to last because they love each other and work hard to make their marriage work. When the time comes, I would be thrilled to have a marriage as loving and respectful as the one my parents' have. But before I have a marriage, I have to be engaged. So . . ."

Kyle turned to the side and smiled at Sandra next to him before getting down on one knee. Sandra's face showed no other emotion than surprise as Kyle continued.

"Sandra Elizabeth Collins, you've put up with my annoying arse for the last five years of our lives, and over that time you've become such a large part of my life that I don't ever think I could bear to let you go. You're brilliant, beautiful, and you have the biggest heart of anyone I know. If I had the ability to look all over the world for the perfect woman for me, it would still come back to you. You are the most amazing woman I've ever met and my life would be pointless without you. I love you so much Sandra, will you please do me the favour of marrying me?"

At the end of the speech, Kyle was holding her hand and looking up at her. He waited patiently for her answer, his eyes gazing worshipfully at her face.

Sandra stood quietly in front of Kyle, silent tears starting to trail down her face before she started to nod. She swallowed thickly before quietly answering 'yes'. Kyle's face broke out into a humongous smile and he stood up and pulled Sandra in a tight embrace.

Victoire and Ally started clapping, the rest of the guests in the room quickly joining along. Mrs. Line was soon up on the stage to congratulate her son and new daughter-in-law-to-be, Mr. Line following her only after stopping to signal for the music to start back up in the ballroom. The four on the stage slowly made their way off the platform, and Victoire and everyone else moved to meet them.

"Oh my Merlin!" Victoire called excitedly as she grabbed her best mate into a tight hug.

Sandra started to giggle, "I know, I can't believe it!"

Victoire looked around them and noticed that everyone else was congratulating Kyle. She turned back to Sandra and looked worriedly at her, "I am really excited for you, and please don't be angry at me, but I have to ask. You're not . . . pregnant . . . are you?"

Sandra laughed a little breathlessly, "Oh my gosh. I wondered the same thing when he started to ask. But then I figured that there would be no way that he would know that I'm pregnant before I would. So no. I'm fairly certain that I'm not."

"Okay. I just needed to ask."

"Because this seems too sudden?" Sandra asked.

Victoire shook her head, "Too soon for Kyle to pop the question? No. Too soon for you to feel comfortable with Kyle asking to marry you . . . maybe."

Sandra smiled, her friend was just worried that she'd said 'yes' to the proposal because she felt pressured to, and not just because she'd wanted to, "Yeah, It's kind of sudden, but there's no rule saying that just because we're engaged now means that we need to get married soon. We can have a few years of just being engaged."

"Have you and Kyle talked about this before?" Victoire asked.

"No. Although, the whole moving in together thing makes a lot more sense now that he has asked. He really surprised me a few months ago when he proposed living together; especially since I know that that's not how old-fashioned purebloods do things. Now though, it makes sense," Sandra replied.

Victoire smiled brightly at her best friend, "As long as you're happy with your choice."

Sandra took a deep breath, "I am."

Victoire gave her friend's hand a squeeze before releasing her to Ally's overly-excited care.

"You better take good care of her," Victoire said with a pointed finger in Kyle's direction.

He laughed it off and answered in his normally jovial tone, "Don't worry, I will. And thank you so much for helping with the move today, and for deciding to come tonight."

"No problem. Although now I know why you begged Teddy and me to come," Victoire told him.

Kyle nodded, "I already knew that her parents weren't going to come, even after I told them about my intentions to propose, because the day conflicted with something else. So I needed to make sure that her other family was available."

Victoire smiled at Kyle's sweet words, "Which is why Ally is here I assume. How did you ever convince McGonagall to let her come anyway?"

Kyle shrugged, "I just told her that I was planning on proposing to Sandra and that it would mean a lot if Ally could be there for it. She agreed right away. She may seem like a crotchety old woman but deep down I think there's a romantic side to her."

"I'd really rather not think about McGonagall having a romantic side," Xavier commented as he walked over to Kyle and threw an arm around his shoulder.

"That romantic side is the only reason why your girlfriend is here right now. So I don't think it would be smart to knock it," Kyle told Xavier.

Sandra walked over to Kyle after receiving Teddy's congratulations. Kyle quickly wrapped her up in his arms and gave her a kiss, "So, would you like your ring now?"

Sandra's face went red, "I forgot all about it actually."

"But _I_ didn't," Kyle replied as he placed a hand in one of his robe's inside pockets and come out with a plush white ring box. He opened the top, and inside sat a gold band with a circular diamond positioned on top. The ring would have been considered simply made if it weren't for the fact that the diamond was humongous.

"Bloody hell that's huge!" Sandra exclaimed. Once she realized what she'd said she blushed a brilliant crimson red and covered her mouth with her hands.

Kyle chuckled quietly at her while he grabbed her left hand from her mouth and slid the ring on her ring finger, "There. It is official now and you can't take your answer back."

"Well that sounds evil. Sandra, blink twice if you want out," Victoire told her dramatically.

Sandra giggled and looked down at her engagement ring for the first time, "Wow. It's beautiful."

"Not as beautiful as you," Kyle told her before he snuck in another kiss.

* * *

**A/N:** Alrighty then, I hope you all liked it :) If you have any questions at all about some of the characters introduced in this chapter, please feel free to ask in reviews or PM's and I'll try to answer when I can.

**Next Update:** I will try to update next week, but the week after that I have two midterms and two assignments due, and then it's reading week so the schedule might get messed up. Also, if I don't have a lot of time to write updates will of course be coming slower, but I'll make sure to mention if I'm planning on going on another moth-long-break or not, I won't just leave you in the lurch.

**Next Chapter:** We will get back to 'present time' and see what Sunday night family dinner at the Burrow looks like.

A big thanks to everyone who has followed, favourited, read, and especially reviewed!

**Big thanks** especially to everyone who reviewed both the last chapter of _Try and Tri Again_, and the first chapter of this story:

**superpottergod21, Emily Alice, fanaticfan123, carbo21, maxie210, xsuperx, Guest (1), brilliant incandescence, LadySnowTheStark, jilyshippingforever, elusivemelodies, TedandVic4ever, eyechange, sweet-matty, Break This Spell666, elviracar128, Guest (2), MiraclesHappen94, Anon, barefoot and buckwild, misticangel101, 1ara3lyse, Power Winter, Guest (3), sepoetry, jeremiah123, TheFantabulousPotterHead, azngurlz093, alicenotinwonderland, changewing, Brook-Lucas-Fan-23, cctjess, rb96, MuggleCreator, Guest (4), As the Robin Flies, clessard, Daniella, FrothyCoffeeQueen26, RoLouG, Forever Siriusly Sirius, Infinity Lily, SiriuslyGeorgia, Yina94, fandomsdream, rockon88, xSuperNovax, zvc56, Encypher, katerinaVD, MaddieMonkey, TheAmazingElle, Luv this story, Awesome, SevenHeartsOfRuby, Teddy Lupin Forever, The Regal Warrior, Priyanka Mishra, Elle, nabdo, **and** Obliviated Bliss.**

**So please everyone don't forget to review and tell me what you thought of this chapter,**

**I hope you liked it,**

**Until next time, DFTBA!**

**(P.S. Oh, and on an unrelated note, who's watched _The Fault in our Stars_ movie trailer yet? ;)**


	4. Disastrous Dinners

**A/N:** Hey guys, I just realized that this weekend and next week are going to be really busy for me because I have two midterms and an essay due (And all my free-time in between that will probs be spent watching the Olympics), so I figured I'd go ahead and update now, and that way you get it before I get too busy.

We're back in the 'regular' time strand for this chapter, so don't forget to read the dates written under the title right above the first paragraph to keep the time and date in order :)

**Disclaimer:**I do not own anything HP.

* * *

**Disastrous Dinner**

**Sunday, January 16th 2022**

"-and then he said that he had finished all of the forms and that he demanded that they be processed. Therefore, I told him that he had to wait until someone was able to go through them and sign off on them, and in the middle of my sentence, he just turned on his heel and walked out of the office. Well I gave the forms to Mr. Jenks like protocol demands and what do you know? The man hadn't finished form P-42, and he hadn't even attempted R-22!" Lucy Weasley told her older cousin in disdain.

Victoire nodded her head to make it seem like she was listening to her younger cousin, even though five minutes into Lucy's fifteen-minute long story she'd zoned out. Lucy had been working in the Department of Magical Cooperation, of which her father Percy was head of, since she'd graduated from Hogwarts a year and a half ago. She was only in an entry-level position in the office, but from what Victoire could tell –based on how she didn't understand half of what Lucy had been talking about- she was well on her way to moving up the ladder with her wide knowledge of international affairs, and her love of doing things by the book. (Both qualities Victoire assumed were the reason why Lucy had been sorted into Ravenclaw during her Hogwarts years and not Gryffindor like almost everyone else in the family.)

Lucy was just about to ask Victoire what she'd thought of the story –in which case Victoire would have had to make up a horrendous lie- when she was interrupted by the front door opening to allow in the hurricane that was Dominique Weasley.

"I'm here the party can start now!" Dom announced excitedly as she swept into the front room and took off her stylish sliver winter trench coat to show off a crazy black, purple, and green asymmetrical patterned long-sleeved sweater dress with a long purple knitted infinity scarf.

Victoire rolled her eyes at her sister's, expectedly, obnoxious entrance. One, they were there currently at the Burrow to have a Sunday night family dinner, and two; the 'party' couldn't start because Ally hadn't gotten there yet. She wasn't late though, because they all knew that Grandmum Molly wasn't going to serve dinner until seven o'clock and Ally still had twenty minutes to get there before that would happen.

"Come by yourself this time did you Dom?" Victoire's cousin Molly asked as she walked into the front room from the kitchen.

Sunday night family dinners had started back up a few years ago as more and more of the Weasleys began to graduate from Hogwarts and be able to make it to them. Currently the list of grandchildren who had escaped from Hogwarts into the real world were: Bill and Fleur's daughters Victoire and Dom; George and Angelina's daughter Ally; and Percy and Audrey's daughters Lucy, and just the past year, Molly. Since the Burrow was back to hosting family dinners, attending them was rather mandatory. The grandchildren were allowed to invite friends and significant others if they'd like, but over the past few years, the only ones brave enough to come and face the large collection of Weasleys and Potters were Teddy Lupin and Xavier Wood. Occasionally, Dom would bring a 'friend', but none of them ever ended up coming back. It came to the point that Victoire more than suspected that Dom would bring blokes with her only when she was trying to get rid of them, hoping perhaps that their large and rambunctious family would scare them away. It usually worked.

A 'friend' of Dom's attended last Sunday evening's dinner. He was a hulking man who looked about five years older than Teddy and who had a skull tattooed on the back of his baldhead. Victoire hadn't been able to figure out however, whether Dom was actually trying to get rid of him or not.

"Yes I came alone," Dom replied to Molly with a dramatic sniff, "Noah and I broke up right after we left here last week."

"I don't think you can actually call it a break up when you only hooked up with the bloke for two nights," Lucy commented dryly.

Victoire and Molly took a simultaneous step back as Lucy and Dom began to bicker. Lucy had really not liked the fact the Dom had brought a bloke she barely knew to family dinner. It got even worse, when Lucy _saw_ exactly how the bloke looked. She wasn't very happy about it last Sunday night.

"Well at least I can _get _a bloke. Remind me Lucy, when _was_ the last time you brought a date to a family dinner?" Dom countered.

Victoire folded her arms as she watched the two. She could answer Dom's, admittedly rhetorical, question. Neither Lucy nor Molly had ever brought a bloke to family dinner. However, whether it was because they didn't have one to invite, or because they decided that they weren't in a serious enough relationship to introduce one to their family, Victoire wasn't sure.

"I'll have _you _know Dominique that I don't need to always have a bloke around to help define me," Lucy rebutted.

"Oh snap, this is getting real now," Molly whispered to Victoire. She nodded. Lucy's reply had just opened up a whole other can of sassy worms. Not so much because Lucy insulted Dom, but because she used Dom's full name, that meant war.

Victoire turned on her heel and decided to leave Dom and Lucy to their bickering, and Molly to her show. It was better that they got the arguing portion of the night out of the way early, it lessened the chances of food turning into airborne projectiles during dinner. She walked into the kitchen where the rest of the women of her family were –all sexist jokes aside- along with her father and her uncle George. Everyone in the family had already arrived besides Ally.

"Need any help?" Victoire asked as she looked around the kitchen. It looked like her grandmum and her Aunts Angelina and Audrey had is all under control, but she asked to be polite.

"We're almost done in here dear, but maybe you could help your father and George finish setting the table?" Her Grandmum Molly told her from her spot at the stove where she was stirring something.

"Alright," Victoire replied as she picked up two wine glasses that were witting on the side counter and followed her father and uncle into the dining room.

"Remind me why we can't use magic to do this?" Victoire asked her father.

Bill Weasley rolled his eyes as he set down forks around some of the plates already laid out, "When you were younger we used to use magic, but one time one of Ron's hovering-charmed bread knives collided with an army of charmed glasses that George was controlling and glass shattered everywhere. Before we could start to clean it up, you ran right into the room to tell your Mamma something and ended up collecting a foot full of glass before you realized what you were walking on. When you did, you let out an ear splitting scream and started to cry uncontrollably."

"I don't remember that," Victoire told him as she set down the wine glasses, only to pick them up and replace them on the correct side of the plate.

"That's because you were only three. I picked you up, carried you into the kitchen, and sat you down on the counter so that Angelina could put a numbing charm on your foot and pick out the glass, but you wouldn't sit still long enough, you were kicking your feet around, and the screaming wasn't really helping things."

"Then how did you get the glass out of my foot?" Victoire asked.

"Teddy came into the kitchen with a picture book and told Harry that he would distract you with it. Harry picked him up and placed him beside you. He opened the book in his lap and grabbed your hand and was able to distract you long enough for Angelina to put a numbing charm on your foot. After that, he told you to squeeze his hand every time you felt an uncomfortable twinge in your feet while Angelina picked out the glass," Bill explained.

"Really?" Victoire queried.

"Yup."

"How come I've never heard about this before?"

Bill shrugged, "You were three and Teddy was five, obviously you guys didn't remember it, so it never really came up again. Besides, you guys were always doing stuff like that when you were younger."

"Running into a room full of broken glass?" Victoire asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No. Taking care of each other."

Victoire wasn't sure what to say to that, so she just followed her father out of the dining room and back into the kitchen so she could grab more wine glasses.

"It's very nice of you to help Vic, but you don't have to. Why don't you go spend some time with your cousins and your sister?" her grandmum asked her.

"I was with them earlier but it was just too much estrogen for me," Victoire replied.

"Ugh, I know what you mean, I've only spent five minutes with them but that was four too many," a voice called from behind Victoire.

She turned around to see her cousin Ally Weasley standing there with a small smile on her face.

"Hey, just get here then?" Victoire asked her favourite cousin.

"Yeah, how long has Dom been torturing Lucy?" Ally asked as she grabbed the last two wine glasses and followed Victoire into the dining room.

"Torturing? Lucy was giving as good as she was getting when I left," Victoire replied.

"Oh, well what I heard was Dom teasing Lucy about some bloke and demanding to know, if not his name then his eyebrow colour, his weight, and his hand-size."

"Seriously?" Victoire asked at a loss to why Dom would want to know such an odd assortment of characteristics.

"Yeah, I didn't stay long enough to ask what they were talking about," Ally told her.

"Smart move."

Once the girls had finished placing the glasses, their grandmother announced that dinner was ready and everyone went into the kitchen to grab a dish or bowl of food to place on the table before taking their seats. Everyone sat, said their 'hellos' to Ally and Dom who hadn't gotten the chance to see everyone before sitting down to the table, and began filling their plates with food and their glasses with drinks.

Victoire was closest to the wine bottle on the younger girls' end of the table so she offered to fill everyone's glasses for them. Molly and Ally both took a normal glass full, while Dom requested that her glass be filled absolutely to the top, and Lucy primly replied that she had to get up for work early in the morning and that she wasn't going to be irresponsible and get drunk, so she just filled her glass with water.

"Lucy, as always spending time with you is such a joy, yet it makes me even more curious to hear about this bloke that you won't tell me about, because I'm very interested in meeting a man who's actually taken a fancy to you," Dom told her as she took a big gulp of her wine.

Lucy huffed, "Not every man finds the desire to see how much alcohol one can drink before passing out an endearing quality in a woman."

Victoire and Ally both sighed as they dug into the food on their plates, Dom and Lucy seemed to have won the competition to be that night's dinner show.

"Godric Lucy we're nineteen. Live a little why don't you?" Dom replied.

"So Vic, how did the wedding planning go today?" Molly asked her cousin in an attempt to start a conversation that didn't centre on Lucy and Dom yelling at each other.

"It went well, although I got writer's cramp more than once filling out the addresses and names on envelopes," Victoire replied.

"Well Sandra and Kyle would have a lot of guests to invite," Molly replied.

"Five-hundred guests give or take –mostly give- a dozen," Victoire said as she cut her roast beef.

"Wow and how many of you guys were working on them?" Molly asked.

Victoire looked down at her fork as it pushed around her peas, "Um, it was just four of us; Sandra, Kyle, Xavier, and I."

The conversation went quiet after that. Dom and Lucy were still arguing on their half of the table, but Victoire and Molly's attention had gone to Ally, who was studiously ignoring her cousins and seemed very interested in sculpting her pile of mashed potatoes into equal lines of five on her plate with her knife.

Victoire grabbed her glass of wine and took a big guzzle before addressing Ally, "So how did the study group go today?"

"Fine."

"So your test for potions school is this week?" Molly asked.

"Yup."

"What day?" Victoire inquired.

"Wednesday."

"What are you being tested on?" Molly questioned.

"Antidotes to poisons."

Victoire allowed Ally's simple answers and left her alone. She liked to think that her cousin's sudden quietness had to do with her worry over her upcoming test. For the past three years that Ally had been out of Hogwarts, she'd been in a potion maker's program, with her final goal of being a potions maker and researcher for St. Mungo's Hospital. Ally's program was only three years long, so she was in her last, and arguably hardest, year of schooling.

"So what's up on your agenda this week in Healer's school Vic?" Molly asked figuring that Ally would be out of the conversation for a bit.

"Tomorrow we're picking spots for our next nine months of practical healing," Victoire explained.

"You were telling me about that earlier in the week weren't you Vic?" Dom asked. She and Lucy had decided to put a stop to their argument for the minute it seemed.

"Yeah, the instructor only has so many spots in different places; it'll pretty much be a free-for-all tomorrow during class to sign up for them. It's kind of a first come first serve."

"What kind of places can you do your practicals in?" Lucy asked.

"There's the obvious ones of places in St. Mungo's and other hospitals, but they're under direct healers only and can be more of a watching game than a doing game. Other places are retirement homes, lower-level community Quidditch teams, and places like that," Victoire explained.

"So you're obviously going to be trying for a spot in the Dark Arts Reversal Ward at St. Mungo's," Molly said knowing that that was the area that Victoire wanted to specialize in in the next few years.

"Yes, but there are even less spots there because the amount of spots go by how many Healers there are to supervise. The fewer healers, the less spots. And the D. A. R. W. only has two full time healers."

"Does Auntie Angelina take students from your class level?" Lucy asked. Angelina was a healer in the Magical Bugs and Spell Damage Ward.

"She takes students in their residency period, that doesn't happen until a few more years. This practical is just for the use of basic magic. We're essentially at the level of qualified medi-witches and wizards, so the only healing we'll be doing in practicals will be simple stuff," Victoire explained.

"Hmm, so if it's going to be first come first serve tomorrow does that mean you'll have to go to bed early tonight and get a good night's rest?" Ally teased coming out of whatever quiet thought's she'd been entertaining previously.

"Yeah, like that's going to happen," Victoire scoffed.

"Why not?" Molly asked.

Ally gave Victoire a concerned look as she picked up her wine glass, "Still no letter?"

Victoire sighed and shook her head, "No. And he was supposed to send me it yesterday."

"He did say that he wouldn't always be able to write to you on time though, didn't he?" Dom asked.

"Yeah, but he missed the last two weeks too. I'm starting to get worried," Victoire replied as she picked up her glass and swirled around the wine in the bottom of it.

"I feel bad for you Vic, but it's not like there's anyway that you can contact him," Lucy said.

"Oh, but I know a way that I could," Victoire said as she turned her head to her left to glare at her Uncle Harry across the table from her and to the side.

Harry had heard the tail end of their conversation and turned to look at Victoire with a frown, "Vic, we've been through this, I can't help you. Even I don't know how to contact him."

"Yes but he knows how to contact him, even though he won't tell me because he wants me to go insane. He knows where he is and how to contact him, and could he could tell him that I worry about him," Victoire told her Uncle Harry a little angrily.

"Um, who are they talking about again?" Molly whispered to Dom.

"I don't know," Dom answered, "I got lost after the fourth 'he'."

"I got lost after the third one," Ally whispered to the two.

Lucy rolled her eyes at her cousins, "Merlin you guys, she's talking about how Kingsley knows how to contact Teddy, but he won't tell her how. Which he shouldn't by the way, as the head of the Auror Department Kingsley is doing his job by not telling Victoire where Teddy is. If she knew, it could compromise his mission. Kingsley has no need to tell her just because she's his goddaughter."

"Thank you for your opinion Lucy, but even you have to admit that it's a _tad_ annoying that my boyfriend has been off on a mission for the Auror Department doing who knows what, who knows where, for the last month and a half, and for who knows how much longer," Victoire snapped at her cousin.

"Well obviously that 'who' in all of those questions is Kingsley, but you still don't have any right to know," Lucy argued starchily.

"Godric Lucy, cut Victoire a little slack. Teddy is her boyfriend after all, and she was supposed to hear from him on a certain day, and for the past three weeks," Dom defended her big sister.

"Still doesn't give her a right to know, she's just his girlfriend."

Victoire swallowed the wine that was left in her glass and poured more into it, only to start in on that.

"You're really one to talk Lucy, you have no idea what it's like to be anyone's girlfriend," Dom retorted.

"Like you know any better Dom, all of those blokes that you hookup with for less than a week don't count as a relationship," Lucy yelled.

"Out of all of us here, who has the right to be considered in a serious relationship if not Victoire?" Dom asked scathingly, "Molly doesn't have a boyfriend. You Lucy, say that you have some bloke hanging around and yet it obviously can't be serious if you won't even let one person in your family meet him. And Ally was in a perfectly good relationship, but then she just broke up with Xavier for no reason!"

The entire dining room went quiet as Dom's rant ended. Molly moved Dom's empty wineglass out of her reach as Ally pushed away from the table –her chair scrapping the floor as it moved- and standing up and storming away from the table, through the kitchen, and out the back door that led to her grandparents' porch.

"Beautifully done Dom," Victoire commented a moment later. She stood up from her chair and went to walk away from the table, only to turn back to grab her and Ally's wineglass along with one of the fuller wine bottles from the table. She left the dining room, walked through the kitchen, and out onto the porch where Ally was sitting on a bench swing.

Victoire sat down next to her, filled up both of their wineglasses, and offered Ally hers, all without saying a word.

Ally took the wineglass and considered it for a minute before bringing it to her lips and downing all of the liquid. She held it back out to Victoire when she'd finished. Victoire just shrugged her shoulders before filling the glass back up. Ally took to sipping the second glass as she looked up at the stars, and Victoire did the same.

"I take it you're letting me broach the topic on my own?" Ally asked her.

Victoire took a sip of her wine before answering, "Honestly, I saw an opportunity to leave, and I took it. In addition, I'd like to compliment you on the subtle heating charm you put on the swing. I totally forgot to grab my sweater before I left."

Ally nodded, "Thanks."

They each took another sip of wine.

"You know that Dom didn't mean to be so mean," Ally told Victoire.

"I should be saying that to you," Victoire said.

Ally sighed, "She was just trying to defend you to Lucy and sympathize with the fact that you have no idea where Teddy is right now. She just didn't go about it the right way."

"She really needs to learn how to use tact; I don't know how she's gotten so far in her law studies without it."

"Do you want to talk about Teddy?" Ally asked after a quiet pause.

"I feel like I've talked the subject to death. I'm sure talking about Xavier would be more interesting," Victoire said a little cautiously.

"_I_ feel like I've talked that subject to death," Ally answered quietly.

"That's interesting, especially since you haven't actually _talked_ to anyone about it."

Ally took a gulp of her wine, "I still can't talk about it yet."

Victoire sighed and tapped her nails on the edge of her glass, "Ally . . . I respected your privacy when I first found out about yours and Xavier's breakup. But it's been _two months_ since you broke up . . . I think it's time you spoke to someone about it. Keeping up all of the emotions inside is not good for you."

"I don't have any emotions bottled up about it," Ally said quickly.

"Really? No emotions at all?" Victoire asked sarcastically.

Ally shook her head and then took another big swallow from her glass.

"Not even the kind that make you want to avoid every situation with him?"

Ally sighed, "What do you want me to say Vic? I can't face Xavier twice a week for the bi-weekly wedding planning sessions."

"And when you first broke up with him you said that there would be no awkwardness," Victoire muttered under her breath. She didn't say it quietly enough though.

"I didn't think there would be! But now every time I see him it's like he thinks he can try to convince me to take him back," Ally said before finishing off the last of the wine in her glass.

"Well if he thinks he can convince you to take him back shouldn't you at least give him the chance to talk to you?" Victoire asked ignoring Ally's silent request for more wine.

"Why should we bother? It's not like we're going to get back together," Ally told her.

"Because you're completely over him?" Victoire asked.

"Yes."

"_So_ over him?"

"Yes."

"So you won't mind if I share with you the bit of gossip I heard today?" Victoire asked with a raised eyebrow.

Ally gestured for Victoire to continue with her hand.

"Well then, Sandra told me today that Jenny couldn't stop talking about Xavier after the last time we were all together. I guess she went on for hours about how hot and funny, and sexy and built he was," Victoire told her, not caring that she was embellishing the truth a little.

Ally's jaw tightened and Victoire was able to count to ten before Ally spoke again, "He's been on _Witch Weekly's_ Quidditch's Most Eligible Bachelor list for the past four years, lots of girls find him attractive."

"But not all of them know that he's on the rebound," Victoire replied.

Ally took the wine bottle out of Victoire's hand and filled her glass to the brim, "He can have as many girls as he wants; he's a good looking professional Quidditch star who _is_ single."

Victoire watched Ally swallow half of her re-filled glass in one swig before saying, "Well if he can move on to a new girl, then you can move on to a new guy."

Ally snorted, "Are you seriously about to pitch the idea of me getting back into the dating pool? I thought you were still sailing on the Ally-Xavier ship."

Victoire took Ally's wineglass from her –it was almost empty again- and placed it on the ground at their feet, "Sweetie, you're my favourite cousin and Xavier's one of my best friends. I love you both a lot, but all I want is your happiness. Together, or apart. But you're not happy, you say you're over Xavier, and if you are maybe it's time to find someone else, or at least go out and enjoy yourself again."

"I don't need to. What I need to do is to study for my last year of potions school, and help Sandra with her wedding planning," Ally responded.

"Do you have any interest at all in going on a date with someone else?" Victoire asked her.

Ally shook her head.

"Then I'm not sure that you're over Xavier."

"Victo-" Ally started.

"I'm serious Ally. Tell me the truth, when you close your eyes and try to picture your perfect man, Xavier's face still comes up, doesn't it?"

Ally sighed and stood up from the swinging bench, "Yes alright. Is that what you want to hear?"

Victoire crossed her arms against her chest, "Not particularly, this does tell me though that you're not as over him as you claim to be."

"So?"

"So, if you're not going to talk to him about why you broke up –he still has no idea why you did by the by- then you should at least tell someone. I'd like that someone to be me, but I know that because of my connection to Xavier it probably won't be, but you should still tell _someone_," Victoire pleaded.

Ally wrapped her arms around herself before answering, "Vic, I want to tell you about it . . . but I just can't yet."

"It's been_ two_ months Ally," Victoire repeated.

"I just need more time," Ally said her voice turning hysterical, "Just . . . more time."

Victoire walked over to Ally and wrapped her in a hug. She'd almost forgotten that when Ally had a little too much wine she had a tendency to get weepy.

"Alright," Victoire whispered into her ear, "You can have all the time you want."

* * *

**A/N:** So, for those of you who were hoping that Ally and Xavier we're still together . . . please don't hate me! And for those of you who are no longer in denial . . . what do y'all think? And if you have any questions about the chapter or story, or if anything is the slightest bit confusing please don't hesitate to ask in review or PM me :)

**Next update:** Should happen on either the 14th or 15th, but again I've got a mid-term (on Valentine's day) and then I have to travel back home for Reading Week so I'll try to update on one of those days :)

**Next Chapter:** We'll get to here more about what actually went down during the break-up . . .

**Thanks to everyone who has followed, favourited, read and reviewed!**

Just a little reminder that I really, really appreciate my readers' reviews and comments on my stories. They help me know if people are enjoying the story, or if there's something they don't understand because I didn't explain well enough. Any comments, ideas, future theories about things, everything helps me grow as a writer, and lets me know if people really are liking the way I write the characters and plot. So remember, every review is welcome, short or long, I don't care I'll read them all :)

**Last thing:** As of posting this there are 78 reviews to this story, and I think that this chapter might push me to 100 or over (*hint*hint*wink*wink* please and thank you), so if you are the 100th reviewer please let me know :)

An especially biG, bIG, BIG thanks to:

**Brook-Lucas-Fan-23, elusivemelodies, maxie210, cmorehart, jilyshippingforever, zvc56, MaddieMonkey, TheAmazingElle, TheFantabulousPotterHead, Infinity Lily, brilliant incandescence, Forever Siriusly Sirius, MuggleCreator, Chloex, Encypher, Sabrina, jeremiah123, Priyanka Mishra, clessard, Seher Syed, Omg-luv HP, rockon88, reheni, **and,** Anon**.

**elusivemelodies:** Thanks, I'm glad you like the concept :)

**maxie210:** Exclamation marks are fun!

**cmorehart:** Aww, thanks for the compliment, I try to make the situational humour seem believable.

**jilyshippingforever:** I'm sooo excited for the movie!

**zvc56:** Thanks, I figured that you guys would like to know how they got engaged :)

**MaddieMonkey:** I didn't cry during the trailer, but my face hurt by the end from the smile I had on during the beginning.

**TheFantabulousPotterHead:** How'd you enjoy the Weasley family in this one?

**Infinity Lily:** Do you think there's hope for Ally and Xavier in the future?

**Forever Siriusly Sirius:** Yeah, I didn't want so huge cliched public proposal, Kyle's classier than that so I figured that what I did write would fit :)

**MuggleCreator:** Crumb-catcher is a type of neckline usually seen on dresses, wedding dresses in particular. If you go to Google images and search crumb catcher neckline, you'll get a slue of pictures of dresses with different styles of the neckline.

**Chloex:** Gee, thanks :)

**Sabrina:** Even if the TFIOS trailer didn't look amazing, I'd probably watch it just so I could see John Green's cameo.

**clessard:** Craving, interesting way to describe the feeling ;)

**Omg-luv HP:** Sowwy, but I hope you and everyone else will understand when we find out the reason why later in the story -much later.

**rockon88:** Not going to lie, I read the first bit about you not liking it and my face slipped into a frown. Then I read the second part and felt better but you sure did startle me! As for J.K.R.'s regret, I feel like I respect her even more now because it shows that she is still so heavily invested in her characters that she still thinks about them even this many years after publishing the last book. As a writer she probably spent a lot of time thinking about how to write the story so that her readers enjoy it, but she also has a responsibility to herself to write the story the way she wanted to write it. Stories are very personal things to writers, more than people would expect, and the fact that she shared with us her regret, and continues to share her feelings just shows how invested she into not only the stories, but into us the fans. It must have been difficult for her to share her regret and I appreciate her more for it.

**So, thanks for reading I hope you enjoyed it,**

**Please drop a review if you feel like it,**

**Enjoy the craziness this coming week that is the Olympics (I know I will) :),**

**And DFTBA!**


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